LIMINAL SPACE

Advent Reflections - 2006 Week Four and Christmas

The fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas happened right on top of each other this year…. “bada-bing, bada-boom.” There wasn’t a lot of time to sit and reflect on the readings from the prophet reminding us that “the Lord himself will be peace” and from Paul saying “God, here I am, I come to do your will” and from St. Luke reminding us that “Blessed is the one who believes that the promise made to him/her by the Lord will be fulfilled.”

It’s too bad. We need time to reflect on these words.

Then, boom, in less than 12 hours, we’re hearing the great news about light overpowering darkness, God being enfleshed – taking visible form in this world. Promises are being fulfilled, not because we “earned them” but because God wants us, loves us, pours God's generosity over us for no other reason other than God wants to. Period. This is not easy to hear. We’re used to “fairness” and “tit for tat.” Even as we listen to those words, we’re making sure we give a gift of equal value to the gift given us by our friends. We are not used to “just because I love you.”

We are told by some that the first Christmas happened, that God came in the tiny baby in Bethlehem, so that God could save us from our sins, from hell, from the consequences of our weak human nature. I believe God came to teach us how to love, because we just weren’t getting it. Look at our world today! We still don’t get it. God came not because we sinned, but because God “so loved us.” And I believe when we die, we will be asked “did you love?” not “did you sin?” In other words “Did you get it?”

To get it means to live it and pass it on. In other words, we are called to continually incarnate – enflesh – God in this world. Where is God made manifest in this world? In the parking lots of crowded pre-Christmas malls? At the return counter on Dec 26th? How much more is the unconditional, inclusive, embracing love of God tangible in this world because of our actions and words? Do we add to the light or diminish it? Is God any more believable because of us? Or are we in a world where as William Butler Yates says, “the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

Again, these are the question upon which we need time to reflect between the last Sunday of Advent and Christmas. But it’s not too late. We can still reflect as we enter a new year.

We are told that the Kingdom of God provides a light that “darkness cannot overcome,” that will only happen if each of us is such a light. I know of several times during the shopping, spending, and preparation for Christmas where my light quickly became a smoldering wick. I got caught up in the nonsense, the frustration, the tension of it all. I lost sight. I didn’t get it, or got it and lost it. I had to “re-light” several times.

It has been said that Christianity is not a spectator sport. If it is not lived, fully entered into, passionately joined, it is nothing more than any other commercial endeavor. Incarnation was not a one-time event. It must continue if God is to be known and believed. Each of us is a potential spark of Divine life and love. Each of us is, potentially, is a reflection of the source of life, love, and being. We contribute to the light or the darkness – there’s no in between.

I end these Advent reflections where I began – Dom Helder Camera: “Be careful how you live your life. It is the only gospel that most people will ever read.” It’s that difficult. It’s that simple. Incarnation is a collaborative effort. It’s not something God does and we watch, but something in which to participate – fully, passionately, and consciously. It happens when we care for the poor, the alien (the immigrant), the widow, the prisoner, the hungry. It happens when we refuse to participate in an eye for an eye. It happens when we love inclusively. It happens when we demonstrate by our lives that there is, as Alan Jones of Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco says, “something else going on in the world other than getting and spending, killing and dying.”

So…. the Christmas, incarnational message of every follower of Jesus? “The world doesn’t have to be this way! Let me show you.”

Let me end with a blessing I wrote several years ago.
“May the message of Christmas stir you soul with a renewed sense of purpose.
May the New Year be filled with a passion and enthusiasm for life.
May you maintain a perspective that recognizes what is truly important.
May you have the courage to take risks and expand your possibilities.
May you celebrate your life and reverence all life.
May each new challenge bring growth and deepen your compassion for others.
And may you know the wonder fo small and simple things.”

A Blessed Christmas Season!

Advent Reflections 2006 - Week Three

The focus of the readings during the first two Sundays in Advent was preparing the way of the Lord, about promises being fulfilled, and the hungers of the human heart being met by the coming of God. We are told by the readings from the prophets that God will make us a holy people. We are told to take off our clothing of sorry and put on robes of integrity and rejoicing. Finally, these prophets tell us to rejoice and shout aloud with gladness because the Lord our God is in our midst!

St Paul weekly admonishes us to be attentive to the needs of others, to live the life God has called us to live, to let our love for one another increase, and to be happy and evidence tolerance in our lives.

Thusfar, the gospels of the first two weeks of Advent have told us to stay awake, to be watchful, not to let our hearts be “coarsened” by the cares of the world. And John the Baptist admonishes us to prepare the way of the Lord – to make every valley filled, every mountain level, and every crooked way straight. Then, “all mankind shall see the saving power of God.”

Sound good?

Just one thing is missing. How do we do that? And that question is both asked and answered in the Gospel of this Third Week of Advent. We participate in this revelation of God, this incarnation of the divine, this salvific event by caring for the poor, the marginalized, the outcasts, the socially and economically less fortunate than we.

Great, got it! …………Er, ah, how do we do that?

If you have more clothes and food than you need, John tells us, share with someone who does not have enough clothes and food. Conduct your business affairs honestly. Whatever your job, do a good days work, act with integrity, stop complaining. In short, be generous, fair, and grateful. Wonderfully simple, not a lot of ecclesiastical hoops to jump through, no magic potions, incantations, and special rituals, just take care of the poor, be fair in all your dealings with others, do your job with integrity.

How did it all get so complicated? We went from this simple message – one that Jesus reiterated and expanded (see the Beatitudes) – to having huge organizations, multiple layers of leadership, dogmas that oppress, separate, and shame, and a need to be right and have THE truth.

Care for the poor, be fair in all your interactions with others, do your calling with integrity. That’s the core of it. Perhaps to do this genuinely and consistently is a lot harder than all the other “hoopla” I just mentioned. Perhaps preoccupation with being right, with protecting and sustaining our organizations conveniently distracts us from the simple yet very challenging work of the gospel. Over 2000 references to the poor in the scriptures! That blows doors off the air time many of our “hot topics” of today ever got – or deserved for that matter.

Put your shovels, bulldozers, road graders, blasting caps, and other construction materials away. It’s not about real valleys, mountains, and crooked roads. It’s about the various “obstacles” in our human hearts that keep us from truly answering the call of the poor and thus “preparing and making known the way of the Lord.” Those are the real areas of focus. Until we level the hills of apathy, fill in the valleys of unnecessary consumerism and selfishness, and straighten our crooked notions about what will make us happy, safe, and content, the power and presence of God and God’s kingdom will be missed.

The kingdom is among us! God is among us! It’s not about some day in the distant future! But we won’t notice, and others won’t notice either until we head the simple call of the scriptures. Clearing the way within is the answer.

The well known Trappist Monk Thomas Merton said it best when he reminded us that “Advent is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.”

Advent Reflections 2006 - WEEK TWO

Following up on my comments of last week, I believe that the responsibility or challenge to live the gospel with our lives ties to our responsibility to “make straight the way of the Lord” – the phrase so often proclaimed in Advent liturgies. Let me explain.

The homilist I heard last Sunday said “don’t think back to Jesus, think forward to Jesus.” I think he still missed the point. Are we to just passively wait for the coming of Jesus? Will there be “pie in the sky by and by?” The preacher stated that the promises of the readings for the week would be fulfilled “on that day when Jesus comes again.”

I have a problem with this thinking……

I agree “don’t think back to Jesus,” but I disagree with “think forward to Jesus coming again.” For me, a central message of Jesus is that the kingdom is among us, that God is among us – we just don’t see! For me, Jesus was teaching us to see God present among us and to be a visible presence of God. Finally, for me, if the way of the Lord is to be made straight, every valley filled, every mountain laid low, and every crooked path made straight, it’s not something that God is going to do independently at some secret time in the future. If this is going to happen, it’s going to happen through us! To view it any other way makes us observers of life who passively, helplessly accept the sorry state of affairs of our world and pray that God will take care of things and then wait for this to happen. Thus, we are relieved of responsibility. “Sorry, my hands are tied, but God will take care of it….. someday.”

I don’t think so…….

Please understand that I do not believe we are all little gods ourselves. I know the distinction. However, I do believe we are all part of the Source of Life, Love, and Being (as Bishop John Spong would say) and, as such, we are called to make known the presence and love of God. To that end, I think we have a few valleys to fill, a few mountains to lay low, and several paths to straighten out – both in our lives as individuals and as a race of human beings on this little speck of dirt spinning in a vast universe – one of innumerable universes.

The readings last Sunday stated “the eyes of all wait upon thee.”

I remember waiting, like most sons in the Western World, for my father to have time to spend with me. Keeping a job, paying the bills, raising a family, holding a marriage together was time consuming. Individual attention was, and regrettably remains, a luxury. I realized that I would have to take care of many things on my own. And now, working with homeless young adults, I often have to help them realize that each of them has to be the one he/she is waiting for to come and rescue him/her.

And this is true, I believe, for all of us. We are the ones for whom we have been waiting. Looking for something to happen by and by, I believe, is missing the point. It sure takes a weight off of our shoulders, but, in reality, I believe the promises and hopes found in the readings of Advent are responsibilities we all share.

So, I ask myself, what am I doing to make valleys filled, mountains level, and crooked roads straight? Do I pray that God will take care of everything? Am I active enough in issues of social justice? Do I make a respectable effort to reflect the presence, love, and compassion of God? Do the people with whom I come in contact daily “see” the Gospel? Is God any more present because of my life? Can people “read the gospel” through my life?

That’s why I don’t believe it’s about looking in the past for Jesus, or looking to the future for Jesus. That’s why I believe it’s about revealing that the God of all the universe is HERE, NOW, in this place and time shadowed, not illuminated, by the current state of our world. That’s why I believe I must be a “do-er” not “wait to be a done to-er.”

The mystery of the incarnation is ongoing and ever evolving. Jesus is the fullest revelation of the mystery of God, and purest example of oneness with God. But Jesus is also an example for us to follow, not the one who does everything for us.

How do I incarnate God in this world? What gospel or “Good News” do I bring to this world through my life? Is the God of all life any more present because of me?

I liked it better when I could just wait for God to come and take care of things……………

ADVENT REFLECTIONS 2006 - WEEK ONE

Advent Season – that time in the Christian calendar between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is a paradoxical period. On the one hand, we are called by the weekly scripture readings to penance and preparation for the Lord’s coming. On the other hand, at least in most of Western civilization, we are caught up in a series of parties, gift exchanges, frantic gift buying and card writing, and general celebration.

Blame it on capitalism, commercialism, materialism, one-upmanism, or any other “ism” for that matter. The fact still remains, this time is one of supreme paradox. And often the only real penance that is done is in the mall parking lots, crowded stores and streets, and, yes, when the credit card statements arrive.

Perhaps many of us have not headed the words attributed to Jesus in Luke’s Gospel: “Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with….the cares of life.” (Revised Standard Version) I love that word “coarsened.” It so richly captures the true ravages of worry, stress, and overall angst that often results from “keeping up” with it all and remaining vigilant for the next threat against our happiness and peace of mind.

Yet, the scriptures warn us about being vigilant about other things. We are challenged to be vigilant – watchful – about the presence of the Lord. Not by and by, but now, around us, often present without our knowing, in the small and simply things, most often in the needy and the least of our brethren.

But wait, there’s more! We are not only challenged to be aware of the presence of God around us, to stand vigilant to the revelations of God in our midst, but we are called to manifest God in our own lives. St. Paul says “love one another and the whole human race.” The hope, it seems, is that God is truly made know in our love. We have, therefore, a dual responsibility: to the be ever vigilant and sensitive to the presence of God among us and to live in such a way that that presence is more clear to others.

One of my favorite quotes is from Dom Helder Camera, a Catholic archbishop of Recife, Brazil and champion of the poor. He said “Be careful how you live your life, it may be the only gospel that people will ever read.”

Perhaps that is the real penance of Advent or any season for that matter – living the gospel with our lives. I think I’d rather not eat meat on Fridays or give up sweets. Is there another option here?

More next week……

POST-THANKSGIVING REFLECTION

Dec 1, 2006

It has been said that the recovery of a thankful heart is the key to many of our ills. In other words, much of our unhappiness is caused by our focus on what is wrong or not good enough or not fair. Many of us seem to have a special knack for noticing what is missing, falling short, bad, etc., while sometimes being oblivious to what is good and beautiful in our lives and the ways in which we have been fortunate or “blessed.” It’s the old “half empty v. half full” story.

In a recent study, it was found that if we took a few moments just before going to be and recounted three good things that happened in our day, and reflected on what contributed to those events/experiences, we could experience a greater sense of well-being, more pleasant dreams, and more restful sleep.

Clearly, increasing our ability to recognize the good, those eruptions of the Divine if you will, that are all around us, also increases the quality of our lives. Some have described this focus on the good as living in an “attitude of gratitude.” This attitude of gratitude, this regular focus or ritualizing of acknowledgement of the good in our lives has many benefits from better sleep to greater resiliency in difficult times.

Case in point.

Just before Thanksgiving, I asked a group of homeless young adults to write an essay on the importance of having an Attitude of Gratitude. These young people come from a variety of difficult, often harsh, environments. Their lives have often been painful and even traumatic.

While all the responses were a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit, one response in particular, written by a young women who was staying in a crowded shelter along with her mother and sister, focused on the small things that made her happy – things that most of us take for granted like a hot shower, a clean bathroom, laundry facilities, a bed (although one of many in a huge dormitory room) and, most of all, “not having to be separated from my family.” More than that, the writer repeatedly stated how happy she was and how “blessed.” She also prayed for “the really poor people in the world who were in the middle of war, the starving children, and the people suffering from AIDS.”

In the midst of her own need, she prayed for those in greater need – clearly the benefit of an attitude of gratitude. And while she never specifically articulated the benefits of this attitude, she nonetheless demonstrated her awareness of them through the content of her short, yet poignant essay.

I am, in turn, deeply grateful for and humbled by her example.

I’d like to end this brief reflection by quoting a Prayer of Thanksgiving given by The Very Reverend Alan Jones – Dean at this year’s Thanksgiving Day service at Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco, California.

“The world is one, the world is one family, the world is in labor. Our planet is convulsed, groaning with pain and promise, many have ceased to matter, and, living without hope, find their anger and despair turned into hatred and violence. Greed and revenge have become the corroding currency of the world - the deadly commerce of those whose mentality is a fortress - neglecting our children and laying waste to our planet. We pray for those who suffer and are in danger in the Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, and in these United States – especially the children, especially the children.

And we thank you for those powerful witnesses who show us another way, a way of solidarity with all creation, a way of peace and justice. And so we thank you for large and generous souls who guard the heart of the world. They teach us that each of us can make a difference. The choice is always ours. And they call us out of the fortress into the banquet of life where we are both hosts and guests, welcoming all creatures to the great table where no one is turned away and there is enough for all. And we commend into your gracious keeping the great army of the dead and acknowledge our solidarity with them – our friends, our enemies, and the great congregation of the unknown and unloved, those unmourned and unlamented. We are one. We are your children. For their sake, help us to choose, help us to act, help us to be, help us to give thanks. Amen”